It looks almost like a scene from a science fiction movie. Lines of sleek, white motorless planes speckle a field near the border of Lancaster and Kershaw counties. Anxious pilots wait as an airplane soars overhead, towing one of the machines through the sky.

This is the 18-Meter National Championship gliding competition, an event that gathers the best glider pilots in the U.S. and Canada to compete in a series of challenges.

From release
Gary Parsons was elected potentate of the Hejaz Shriners at the annual election held Saturday, Jan. 5.
Hejaz has 4,851 members and the Shrine Center is located on Ranch Road in Mauldin, which also hosts an 18-hole championship golf course on about 300 acres.

Parsons was born in Georgetown and educated in the Georgetown school system where he graduated from Winya High School in 1956.

After serving in the U.S. Army, Parsons moved to Lancaster, where he still resides today.

Hall finishes basic training
U.S. Air Force Airman Michael L. Hall recently graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. During the eight weeks of training, he completed intensive training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness and basic warfare principles and skills.
Airmen who complete basic training earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is clearly a reason to celebrate; and, bringing the Indian Land community together because of it is all the more reason.

On Jan. 20, Steele Hill AME Zion Church joined Sun City Carolina Lakes in celebrating with prayers, songs and reflections, followed by a gathering with refreshments in the Lake House ballroom at Sun City.
SCCL Lifestyle Director Trevor Sunderlage said he and a committee of homeowners “put the program together with the idea that we would celebrate MLK’s legacy.”

The Native American Studies Center expanded its art gallery just before Christmas with a gift made possible through an anonymous donor. Catawba Indian Chief and subject of many Catawba creations, King Haigler, rules once again in clay in a still-life painting by Greenville artist, Nancy Biggs Thomas.

Center Curator Brittany Taylor said the work was excellent, with vibrant complementary colors highlighting two traditional King Haigler pots.

She was delighted to welcome Thomas’s work to the Center’s collection.

When Marty Stuart comes to Lancaster on Saturday, Feb. 9, he will be joined by some familiar faces.

The Hinson Girls, a bluegrass and gospel band from Van Wyck, were asked by the Lancaster Performing Arts Series to be the opening act for Stuart’s concert at the University of South Carolina Lancaster’s Bundy Auditorium.